DEACON BLUE - The Great Western Road

Thirteen years have passed since the return of Deacon Blue, a period full of satisfaction for the band, who have climbed back up the charts, reaching the top spots not only in Scotland but in England too.

“The Great Western Road” arrives at a significant moment for Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh, who are celebrating both thirty-five years of marriage and forty years in the business. For the occasion, Ricky Ross brought back sound engineer Matt Butler, who had worked on the making of their debut album “Raintown“.

Dedicated to one of Glasgow's most important streets, “The Great Western Road” was previewed by the triumphant, epic single “Late 88”, a track that immediately reveals both the strengths and weaknesses of the project. The orchestral emphasis, the mediocre vocal refrain and the overly saturated production don't do the end result any favours, stripping it of depth and substance.

Commendable for their stylistic consistency and good melodic taste, Deacon Blue remain stuck in the role of an 80s band, trotting out pleasant, familiar clichés and caressing melodies that are never quite memorable. All that's left to enjoy is the successful Scottish soul ballad that opens the album and gives it its title, or the elegant “Wait For Me”, a song with vaguely American overtones, underscored by piano, organ and brushwork.

Everything then slips by amid chords borrowed from Elton John's “Captain Fantastic” (“How We Remember It”), U2-style guitar riffs (“People Come First”) and a predictable piano-and-voice finale that leaves no mark (“If I Lived On My Own”).

There's no shortage of craft and class, but the songs seem designed with their live performance in mind, while the structure is fairly formulaic, with a series of predictable melodic and instrumental crescendos that are at times redundant (“Ashore”), at times bloodless (“Mid Century Modern”), and not without the odd good rhythmic idea (“Curve Of The Line”).

"The Great Western Road" is a small step backwards for the Scottish band, a collection of decidedly ordinary songs, or even insipid ones like "Up Hope", which consequently stakes its claim as one of the worst in the group's entire career. A project with sounds that are far too polished and radio-friendly ("Underneath The Stars").

The band's fortieth anniversary and the upcoming tour will obviously push Deacon Blue's name back up the charts, but this time it's hard to fully share in their success.

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27/03/2025